Preparations for the Global Health Watch 5 are now underway!! A planning meeting on the Global Health Watch 5 was held in Geneva in May, making use of the presence of a number of supporting organisations who were present for the World Health Assembly. Click to read summary of the GHW5 discussion here in English and French.

Watchers from the People's Health Movement (PHM) and the Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) are watching the World Health Organization this week (23rd May-28th May) as member countries debate on diverse issues that impact on global health.

The People’s Health Movement in Brazil and the Women for Health at the University (MUSAs) strongly reject the current impeachment procedures against the democraticelected president Dilma Roussef and call for the defense of the democratic order and the maintenance of a progressive project for Brazil that protects the rights of women and minorities, all so dangerously threatened. Read the full statement HERE!

In the recent International People’s Health University held in Brussels, PHM representatives from ten European countries shared the challenges they face while mobilising for the right to health, and discussed strategies to strengthen international solidarity.

On April 7th - as previously announced - PHM Europe will participate in the European action day against the privatisation of health and social protection. In Brussels, a series of actions will shine a spotlight on the damaging consequences to citizens and workers of the increasing commercialisation of healthcare services by governments across the continent.

In the wake of the double deadly attacks in Brussels, it is important to reflect on the context and consequences. The People’s Health Movement (PHM) expresses condolences to the families of the victims that fell on March 22nd. Our thoughts are also with those who have and continue to endure similar attacks and levels of violence all over the world: Ivory Coast, Turkey, Palestine, France and Syria among other places.

PHM recently held a steering committee meeting from the 25th to the 28th of January 2016 in Bangkok. Read the letter from the newly elected PHM co-chairs, highlighting key points from the meeting. Please share the letter widely with regional and country PHM friends and comrades.

In this paper it is argued that the globe’s responses to viral epidemics and pandemics show a mirror to the inequity embedded in the system of global governance today. We cannot anymore fight this battle virus by virus. A global response will need to address the structural failures of globalization – where it unleashes new challenges at a global scale but forces a response that is not truly international in character. Read the full paper here.

In its side event organized at the Prince Mahidol Award Conference (PMAC2016), PHM called for the revitalization of Comprehensive Primary Health Care as articulate in the Declaration of Alma Ata 1978 as a base for tax-funded single payer health system that primarily depend on public health service provision.

PHM's 'Watching Team' was at the WHO’s Executive Board (25-30 Jan in Geneva) where it continuously challenged the drift in the WHO through statements read out in the meeting, policy briefs circulated to delegates and live streaming through skype of comments on proceedings of the meeting.

This paper reviews contemporary policy debates regarding priority setting for universal health coverage (UHC) in the context of instabilities in the global economy and the neoliberal program for managing those instabilities.

Concerns continue to be raised regarding provisions of the recently concluded Trans Pacific Partnership. The latest to join in voicing concern is Dr.Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization. Addressing civil society and policy-oriented “think tanks” on November 12, 2015, Dr.Chan said: "Intellectual property rights and the patent system continue to raise questions about fairness.

The People's Health Movement expresses its deepest solidarity with the victims of the air-strikes on the MSF-hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan. Like everyone else, we were stunned when we heard the news that the hospital of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Kunduz, Afghanistan, was the target of severe air-strikes.

The UN finally ratified the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aiming to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all. This article sets the scene for deeper investigations into the impact of global trade policies and lays open questions around the related potential for achieving SDG3 on health and well-being. Implementing the SDGs will require good governance, strong commitment and public health friendly legislation.

Colombia is considering to 'declare of public interest' access to a drug called imatinib. A declaration of public interest is the first step to issuing a compulsory license. Imatinib is a life saving drug and provides a huge benefit to patients of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. It is also used for some other cancers.

The law, which provides for the force-feeding of hunger-striking detainees grants impunity to health professionals who cooperate with security force instructions that are contrary to medical ethics and which violate international human rights standards. Force-feeding of hunger strikers is barbaric and a form of torture, and has long been discredited as a way to deal with hunger strikes by countries that uphold international human rights standards. The passing of this law makes it clear that Israel’s clam to be a democracy is a sham.